The Aptucxet Trading Post Museum is a small open-air historical museum in

Bourne, Massachusetts Bourne ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,452 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Bourne, please see the articles on Bourne (CDP), Bu ...

. The main attraction is a replica of the 17th-century Aptucxet Trading Post which was built by the Pilgrims of

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the British America, first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the pa ...

in order to trade with the

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...

Indians and the Dutch. The museum also features a replica of a 19th-century

saltworks A saltern is an area or installation for making salt. Salterns include modern salt-making works (saltworks), as well as hypersaline waters that usually contain high concentrations of halophilic microorganisms, primarily haloarchaea but also othe ...

, the relocated 19th-century

Gray Gables Railroad Station Gray Gables station is a former train station in Bourne, Massachusetts. History The station was first built by the Old Colony Railroad as a stop for President Grover Cleveland's nearby summer home of Gray Gables Gray Gables was an estate in B ...

, and a wooden

smock windmill The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This ty ...

. The property was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2021.

Aptucxet Trading Post

In 1627, English colonists from

established a trading post south of Plymouth at Aptucxet on the Manamet River (also known as the Manomet or Monument River) on upper

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. The post was the colonists' first permanent settlement on Cape Cod, although they had previously visited the Manamet River area to trade for corn and beans and to search for a missing colonist. The name Aptucxet is a

word meaning "little trap in the river", possibly referring to a

fishing weir A fishing weir, fish weir, fishgarth or kiddle is an obstruction placed in tidal waters, or wholly or partially across a river, to direct the passage of, or trap fish. A weir may be used to trap marine fish in the intertidal zone as the tide reced ...

. The post was established primarily to trade with the Wampanoags, which was desirable for the colonists for several reasons. The colony relied in part on corn and beans supplied by the Indians, and some colonists hoped to start a fur trade in order to repay their debts to England. The trading post also came to be used for trade between the English colonists and the Dutch colonists of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

to the south, today

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Aptucxet was the first trading post established by the Plymouth colonists, and it was followed in 1633 by the Metteneque Trading Post in

Windsor Locks, Connecticut Windsor Locks is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 12,613. It is the site of Bradley International Airport, which serves the Greater Hartford-Springfield region and occupies approxim ...

and the Cushnoc Trading Post in

Augusta, Maine Augusta is the capital of the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Kennebec County. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth-most populous city in Maine, and third-least populous state capital in the Un ...

. Aptucxet was located some distance from the colony and was staffed year-round by colonists. The

Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 brushed Virginia and then passed over southeastern New England in August. Accounts of the storm are very limited, but it was likely the most intense hurricane to hit New England since European colonization. M ...

damaged one of the buildings, and the post was abandoned by the 1650s. The land later became part of a farm. The first archaeological dig on the property was conducted in 1852 when John Batchelder and William Russell undertook a partial excavation of a double cellar hole foundation. They believed that the foundation was part of the original Aptucxet Trading Post, although some researchers have suggested that it may have belonged to a later building. The Bourne Historical Society acquired the land in 1922, and a thorough excavation was conducted between 1926 and 1929 by Percival Hall Lombard and Nathan Bourne Hartford. The current replica building was constructed in 1930 upon these original foundations, using findings from the archaeological digs. The Manamet and Scusset Rivers were widened early in the 20th century and connected to form the

Cape Cod Canal The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in the U.S. state of Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, and is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The approximately canal traverses the neck o ...

, following a route very similar to the one used by Plymouth colonists to travel to the Aptucxet Trading Post. Consequently, the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum is now located on the banks of the Cape Cod Canal rather than the Manamet River.

Saltworks

The museum also features a replica

similar to ones that were used in the area to manufacture sea salt in the 1800s. The saltworks consist of square wooden vats where seawater was left to evaporate. Each vat is equipped with a sliding hipped roof that can be used to protect it from dew and rain. The replica was built in 1967 and rebuilt in 2000 and 2014.

Gray Gables Railroad Station

The museum houses the original station building of the nearby defunct

. It was built in 1892 near President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

's summer home of

Gray Gables Gray Gables was an estate in Bourne, Massachusetts, owned by President Grover Cleveland that served as his Summer White House from 1893 to 1896. It was later converted into the Gray Gables Ocean House hotel, which was destroyed in a fire in 1973. ...

and included a direct telegraph line to Washington, D.C. The station closed in the 1940s and was purchased by the Bourne Historical Society in 1976. It was relocated to the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum in 1977 and renovated in 2014.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.bournehistoricalsociety.org/aptucxet-museum/ Archaeological sites in Massachusetts Bourne, Massachusetts Historic sites in Massachusetts Native American museums in Massachusetts Museums in Barnstable County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Plymouth Colony Tourist attractions in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Trading posts in the United States Wampanoag tribe

Aptucxet Trading Post

Saltworks

Gray Gables Railroad Station

See also

References

External links